The Letters of T. S. Eliot, Volume 1: 1898-1922 (118 page)

MS
Texas

17 May 1922

Castle Hotel, Tunbridge Wells

My dear Richard,

I am very much beholden to you for your last two letters, so far unanswered, which have given me pleasure. I think you must have written a clear and business-like letter to Richmond (and I divine a good scheme behind it)
¹
as he wrote a clear and business-like reply. Richmond has been unfailingly kind to me, and about my repeated delays in producing an article on Seneca has been angelic.
²

I simply do not know what Ezra has in mind, except what his letters tell me. I have had another letter from him, not referring to Bel Esprit, but a very nice one, about the Review. But that will keep till I see you. Meanwhile I am off on Saturday to Lugano for a fortnight’s rest; I hope to cross over into Italy and see Ezra for a few days. I will write you from there. My brain has run down, so that at present I have to flog it for hours to produce the feeblest result, and my last effort, before going away, is to fulfill my engagement to the
Dial
for a
July
Letter. Tell me candidly what you think of my chronicles in the N.R.F. and the current
Dial
. I never know when this sort of job passes muster and when not.

The Lit. [
TLS
] page is a miserable affair, but are
you
getting any money out of it?

I have felt a little better for being here. Vivien will be writing to your wife in reply to her very kind letter. I add my thanks to hers in advance. I must say at once however, that even from here, with a perfect and quick train service, and at a hotel only one step from the station, I find that the journey minimises the benefit. I know of old, that if there is the slightest uncertainty or anxiety about catching trains, I get no benefit out of the country. From here I arrive at Cannon Street, from Aldermaston I should have a further journey from Paddington to the Bank, and I should have to get up in the morning about 6.30. Of course I should have loved being at Aldermaston, and of course Vivien would, but it would be very unwise for me to attempt it. Could I have had a holiday at that time, it would have been perfect for us. I am going to Italy at the invitation and expense of my father-in-law, and by good luck this next fortnight was possible – so it was all arranged very quickly. I needed the holiday now, and the offer of a fortnight in Italy without expense came at the right time.

We are very grateful to you both – You do not know how valuable your encouragement has always been to me,
en outre
[besides]. I hope to see you in June – you leave the day I return – but as soon as you are back.

Yrs ever aff.
Tom 

1–RA wrote to Amy Lowell on 5May: ‘T. S. Eliot is very ill, will die if he doesn’t get proper and complete rest for a long time. A scheme is on foot to raise the money by asking a selected number of people to contribute £10 a year towards the nucleus of an income for him. About £80 has been promised already in England and more is hoped for; also I have a guarantee from the
Literary Supplement
that they will take at least £100 a year’s worth of articles from him.’ After EP had published ‘Credit and the Fine Arts … A Practical Application’, RA wrote again to Lowell on 7 July: ‘I had a long talk with Eliot, who pointed out that we were all being made ridiculous and that he could not possibly accept such hare-brained propositions as Ezra’s scheme involved. I quite agreed with him, but I still thought then that my private scheme might have worked out independent of Ezra’ (
Richard Aldington: An Autobiography in Letters
, ed. Norman T. Gates [1992], 67–9).

2–TSE’s article on Seneca never appeared.

MS
Beinecke

19 May 1922

12 Wigmore St, w.1

My dear Jepson,

I am very glad to have your book,
¹
and I very highly appreciate your sending it to me. I have read it and shall read it again, and I like it very much. It also seems to me well written and perfectly sincere – which seems to me a very great compliment indeed! I should like to discuss parts of it with you at leisure. I am off tomorrow for a fortnight’s holiday, having been invited to spend it at Lugano. I hope to see Pound while there, as he is in Italy, and I hope to see you very soon after my return.

With grateful thanks,
Yours sincerely,
T. S. Eliot

I am also looking forward to showing you a poem I have written this winter, and getting your judgment. 

1–Probably
The Religion of the Life Force
(written under the pseudonym R. Edison Page); reviewed in the
TLS
, 18 May 1922, 327: ‘perhaps the best thing about this little book is its optimism. Mr. Page believes that man, “the Life Force at its highest and most powerful,” is developing into “a final superhuman race”.’

MS
Real Academia de la Historia

20 May 1922

12 Wigmore St

Monsieur,
¹

Je vous prie d’accepter toutes mes excuses; je n’ai pas répondu à votre gracieuse lettre du 11 avril, ma santé m’ayant empêché de m’occuper de mes affaires. Je vous serais bien reconnaissant de votre collaboration. Naturellement, la choix du sujet est à vous, mais au début, un essai critique sur la littérature espagnole contemporaine serait bien à propos.

Puisque la revue ne peut pas paraître avant le mois de septembre ou octobre, je vous écrirai plus tard pour vous rappeler votre promesse.

Croyez, monsieur, que nous sommes très fiers de votre collaboration, et agréez l’expression de toute ma sympathie.

T. S. Eliot

J’attends avec un grand intérêt le numéro de
Indice
.
²
Vous trouverez un petit chronique de moi dans la
Nouvelle Revue Française
pour le mois de mai.
³

1–
Translation
: Dear Sir, Please accept my sincere apologies; I did not reply to your kind letter of 11 April, my health preventing me from tackling any business. I will be very glad of your participation. Naturally, the choice of subject is up to you, but at the outset, a critical essay on contemporary Spanish literature would be most appropriate.

Since the review cannot appear before September or October, I will write later to remind you of your promise.

Believe me, dear Sir, that we are very proud of your participation, and I send my very best wishes. T. S. Eliot

I look forward with great interest to the issue of
Indice
. You will find a little chronicle by me in the May
Nouvelle Revue Française.

2–
Indice
: Spanish review edited by Juan Ramón Jimenez.

3–TSE, ‘Lettre d’Angleterre’,
NRF
18 (1 May 1922).

MS
Beinecke

20 May 1922

12 Wigmore St

My dear Mr Seldes,

Thank you for your letter of the 4th inst. Yes, I have got
Ulysses
, and am toiling over it fitfully, and hope to produce a ‘full dress’ review in a month
or so. It is a big job. I also have under way a long delayed article on Marianne Moore.

I apologise for the enclosed ‘Letter’ (July) for two reasons. First, my health having given out again, I have been living at a hotel outside of town and have written this (the only thing I have written for two months) under great difficulties, so I hope you will excuse MSS. instead of typescript. I should feel less apologetic about this if I thought it a good ‘Letter’. You were kind enough to say that the last had a good press – I was not satisfied with it myself, and I am sure that this is inferior. It has been accomplished under great strain, but that will not excuse its shortcomings.

I am writing on the eve of a 4t nights holiday, but please address me here until June. On June 20th I return to 9 Clarence Gate Gardens
N.W.1.

I think the last number, barring my ‘Letter’, is a
very good one
.

Sincerely yours
T. S. Eliot

I
hope
my writing can be read!

I apologise and am keenly aware both of the excessive brevity and the inferiority. I have been out of touch with things, and my mind is in a very deteriorated state, due to illness and worry. Had it been possible to withhold this over my holiday, I should not be sending it, and if you think it too poor to use, do not scruple to throw it in the basket.

MS
Texas

20 May 1922

12 Wigmore St

Dear Cobden-Sanderson,

I have not been idle during the last two months, although I have been handicapped by a good deal of illness and worry. This is just to tell you that I have copied out a list of about six hundred names and addresses from the Hogarth Press, but I think I had better type it out so that your staff can read it. I am just off for a fortnight’s holiday which I badly need, being rather run down, and hope you will be in town at the beginning of June. I will ring you up immediately on my return, so that we can arrange an early meeting.

With best wishes for your health.

Sincerely
T. S. Eliot

MS
Texas

20 May 1922

12 Wigmore St

Dear Mr Knopf,

Thank you for your kind letter of the 1st inst. It is true that I am most anxious to publish my poem in America in the autumn, on account of copyright. I shall hope within a year or so to have a prose book to offer you.

With best wishes, I am
Yours faithfully,
T. S. Eliot

MS
Princeton

20 May 1922

12 Wigmore St

Dear Woolf,

Your letter and MS. arrived just in time, as I am just leaving for a 4tnight’s holiday. I am delighted to have this Dostoevski, and should like very much to know how much more there is or will be of this chapter, and whether the rest cd be printed in subsequent issues [of the
Criterion
].
¹
Also how soon are you anxious to bring it out as a book. I cannot use this till October as it is impossible to start in June.

The paper would pay, by the way, at first at the rate of £10 per 5000 words, and it would not be
lower
than that, later.

I have been invited to Lugano for a fortnight and shall be back early in June. I should be glad to hear that Virginia is well again: it takes some time for a person to pull up again after these high temperatures –.

With many thanks
Yours
T. S. Eliot

Poste Restante – Lugano

1–See F. M. Dostoevsky, ‘Plan of the Novel, “The Life of a Great Sinner”’ (trans. S. S. Koteliansky and VW),
C
. 1: 1 (Oct. 1922), 16–33.

MS
Schweizerisches Literaturachiv

24 May 1922

Hotel Bristol, Lugano [Switzerland]

Lieber u. geehrter Herr Hesse,

Sie werden sich erinnern, dass ich Ihnen aus London geschrieben habe. Jetzt bin ich nach Lugano gekommen, und bleibe noch zehn Tage. Es wäre mir eine grosse Ehre und Vergnügen, wenn ich Sie besuchen möchte, und mit dem Verfasser von ‘Blick ins Chaos’ sprechen. Ich habe ganz klar gestgestellt, dass ich nur wening wenig deutsch kann hier ohne Wörterbuch oder Dolmetscher! Jedenfalls würde ich mit Ihnen eine Unterhaltung haben.

Möchte ich Sie einladen, auf Frietag oder Samstag Thee zu nehmen?

Empfangen Sie, lieber Herr Hesse, der Austruck meiner besonderer Hochachtung.

T. S. Eliot
¹

1–
Translation
: Dear and esteemed Herr Hesse, You will remember that I wrote to you from London. I have now arrived in Lugano and am staying here for another ten days. It would be a great honour and pleasure if I could visit you and speak with the author of
In Sight of Chaos
. I have made it clear that I know only a little German here without a dictionary or interpreter! Nevertheless I would love to have a conversation with you.

Could I invite you to have tea on either Friday or Sunday?

Please accept, Herr Hesse, the expression of my greatest respects. T. S. Eliot

PC
Texas

[Postmark 27 May 1922]

Lugano

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